6/24/2013

The freedom and wonder of flight has been a passionate theme in many of Hayao Miyazaki's cherished animated films, from the piloting scenes of Porco Rosso to Nausicaa flying through her Mehve through the Valley of the Wind. In his first directorial effort in six years, The Wind Rises, Miyazaki again revels in the power of defying gravity by celebrating one of its architects.
The first teaser for The Wind Rises has been released, and it looks like pure Miyazaki in all of the best ways imaginable. The film centers on the early life of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who developed the Zero Fighter plane the Japanese used during in the Pearl Harbor attacks. Miyazaki is basically pulling from his own mini-series from a few years ago, and adapting Tatsuo Hori's novel, the author who may make an appearance in the film as well. There's nothing here that suggests the story will comment on Horikoshi's later endeavors, although it'd be interesting to see what Miyazaki's perspective on that would be.

The Wind Rises opens in Japan on July 20th, and it will likely make its way to the U.S. some time after. For those itching for the most recent Miyazaki film, his co-scripted From Up On Poppy Hill hits DVD soon and can be pre-ordered here. [ANN]